Election! All the news you won’t avoid

Melbourne Herald Sun, Thursday February 7, 2013

The announcement was the biggest non-news we are likely to ever hear: A2013 will be a constant fierce election campaign from beginning to end@. What a surprise! The pollies will be slugging it out in a long-endurance match. Well whether the writs are called or not, there was no doubt in anyone=s mind that this will be the year of the big fight. The only blessing is that we now have the date of the final bell.

Having established that AHe said@, AShe said@, AScandal@, AIncompetence@ will be the subject of every front page and news bulletin for the next seven months, the rest of us can quietly turn the page and get on with business. Certainly that is the attitude of the marketing community.

Marketing is a mixture of science and prediction. Should your new product campaign run in late autumn or early spring? How much will it cost to make the campaign dominate the air waves? What=s the best way to use the social media? Can you build in a couple of commercials to go viral before the footy season? Can you gain an advantage over your competitors through the timing of the campaign?

The team weighs and debates all these and many more points in designing a strategy, and prepares a hefty thesis to explain what they have decided and why - after all there are millions of dollars in product development and advertising funds riding on the success of this campaign. 

So you will understand why an election is a pain in the neck for marketing corporations. Having a pair of elephants fighting to the death in the midst of your carefully planned and planted field can be a disaster.

Political parties will run sudden policy promotions from overnight decisions that suck up all available advertising space. There are no more discounted spots that can be added to a schedule at little cost. Suddenly a block booking by the parties means that your carefully planned run of commercials has to be cut into sections.

Most importantly, the noise is so loud and distracting that you have a hard time getting your campaign to bite. So most definitely, marketers hate election years.

Whatever date you choose will have problems, but September 14 seems fairly safe, clear of the footy finals and the spring racing carnival - however unfortunately stepping on Yom Kippur, much to the annoyance of Michael Danby and the Jewish community. But many of them postal vote in any case, being a Sabbath, so no doubt this was judged the safest choice.

Both sides were close observers of the American campaign, with the PM=s senior strategist John McTernan huddling with the President=s Joel Benenson during visits to Washington.

The Obama camp has now revealed that they constructed a huge data base collecting every piece of information from every source: lists from campaign offices, fundraisers,

field workers, electoral records, phone books. From this they did micro‑targeting and statistical modelling.

They established that wealthy middle-aged females in California had an irresistible draw to small fund-raising dinners with George Clooney. On the east coast the magnet was Sarah Jessica Parker. They could tell who was watching which TV programs and target them through personal media.

And without relying totally on strings-attached corporate donations, they raised $1 billion.

These are the lessons our politicians will be putting to work over the next seven months, so be ready to get up-close and personal with your local candidate. The politicians know who you are and where you can be found. They=re coming to get you.

ray@ebeatty.com;